The Missouri Persecutions

This brings me to the close of the story of the Missouri Persecutions. We have seen a people start out under the direction of the Lord to build up the City of Zion to his holy n...

On the 4th of August, 1831, a conference was held among the Colesville saints, at the house of Joshua Lewis, in Kaw Township; and about this time a number of revelations were gi...

The Book of Mormon, the coming forth of which has already been detailed, contains many promises to the Lamanites--that is, to the American Indians, whom it reveals to be the rem...

The spring of 1833 opened early in western Missouri. The streams, which had been so long locked up in ice, broke loose under the genial rays of the returning sun, and rushed mad...

That was a cunning piece of diabolism which prompted the mob of Daviess County to set fire to their own huts, destroy their own property and then charge the crime to the saints....

The next day Moroni again appeared to him when he was crossing a field, and announced to him once more the message of the night before, and instructed the youth to make a confid...

The conference of The Church appointed for the 6th of June assembled on that date, in Kirtland. It was an occasion of great importance. In what way it was done is not recorded,...

The winter of 1838-9 must have been a trying one to Joseph the Prophet and his associates immured in Liberty prison. The gloom of their prison life must have caused them less so...

It would appear that as soon as the news of the expulsion of the saints reached the ears of the State officers, they were anxious to reinstate them in their possessions. R. W. W...

In the meantime the mob forces, called "the governor's troops," had gathered about Far West to the number of two thousand two hundred men, armed and equipped for war. The main b...

Whether it was the fear of popular censure or the approach of Zion's Camp that awed the Jackson County mob into suggesting a peaceable adjustment of their difficulties with the...

"When the Lord commands, do it." This is what the Prophet Joseph declared to be his rule. Therefore, when the Lord, on the twenty-fourth of February, 1834, commanded him to gath...

The land in which the city of Zion is to be built will ever be of interest to the saints, and I therefore give the following description of that section of Missouri.

The third day after the events related in the preceding chapter, the mob, to the number of some five hundred, again came dashing into Independence bearing a red flag, and armed...

Dr. Austin, of Carroll County, who had commanded the mob forces about Diahman, being compelled to disband his forces, at least part of them, he esteemed his force insufficient t...

This excitement in Daviess and surrounding counties, and the Indian difficulties which were threatening about the same time, induced Governor Boggs [A] to send an order to Gen....

It is time now that we turn our attention to what befell Joseph Smith and his fellow-prisoners. The first day from Far West they made twelve miles, camping at night on Crooked R...

In answer to the call made for the citizens of Jackson County to assemble at the court house on the twentieth of July, 1833, to devise means to rid the county of the "Mormons,"...

The story of the persecutions endured by the Latter-day Saints in Missouri, one of the sovereign States of the United States of America, properly begins with the advent of a mis...

THE mob forces were gathering from all quarters to destroy Far West. Niel Gilliam was in the west urging the citizens to drive the "Mormons" from the State. Generals Lucas and W...

Before starting, the prisoners were conducted into Far West, permitted to get a change of linen, and take leave of their families, though in the presence of a brutal guard. This...

Meantime the presence of the saints in Clay County began to be a cause of uneasiness among the non-"Mormons" of the community. The leading citizens of the county assembled at th...

The day following this providential storm the camp moved out into the prairie some five miles, where there was a better chance to defend themselves. Here, the next day, Colonel...

Joseph was forever active. His appearance in the midst of the saints was always the signal for increased activity in all phases of the work. A day or two after his arrival at Fa...

The sparsely settled counties of upper Missouri, as well as the newly organized county of Caldwell, seemed to promise an asylum where the exiles from Jackson and Clay Counties,...

It must not be supposed that all the people of Missouri sanctioned the outrages committed against The Church. On the contrary there was here and there an honorable man who prote...

The work accomplished by the Prophet Joseph was considerable during his stay in Missouri. On the first of July, with a few of the brethren, he crossed the Missouri into Jackson...

In the meantime the messengers from those parties who had burned their own homes and destroyed their own property at Millport had reached Jefferson City, and poured into the wil...

Thus Far West was founded; and the impediments to her growth as a strictly moral and temperance city removed. And yet, causes were at work that were undermining the spiritual st...

At the time the saints were requested to leave their homes in Clay County, the whole northern part of Missouri was very sparsely settled; and but few counties were organized. As...

It will perhaps be remembered that the saints at Diahman were given a very limited time by General Wilson in which to leave for Far West--only ten days. Therefore in their fligh...

Early on Monday the mob took the ferry-boat on Big Blue, west of Independence, which belonged to the saints, driving the owners away with threats of violence. From thence they w...

Having made all necessary preparations for obtaining by civil process redress for the wrongs inflicted upon them by the mob, Sunday, the twentieth day of October, 1833, the sain...

The day following this revelation the camp left Fishing River and approached Liberty, Clay County; but when within five or six miles of that place they were met by General Atchi...

Having related the principal events connected with the meeting held at Liberty, we must consider the propositions made by the Jackson people to the saints, for the peaceful adju...

Other parties during the two days mentioned flocked to the Missouri River, and crossed at the ferries into Clay County. One of the companies of distressed women and children wer...

As soon as the camp was reorganized at Salt River, Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde were sent as delegates to wait upon Governor Dunklin, at Jefferson City, and request him to cal...

Pending the gathering of the strength of the Lord's house to go up to redeem Zion, the saints who had been driven from their homes were instructed to importune at the feet of th...

On the seventh of June Zion's Camp reached the Allred settlement, on Salt River. This Allred settlement consisted, for the most part, of Latter-day Saints, and here Joseph resol...

The morning of the 5th of November witnessed the people from all parts of the county crowding well armed into Independence. But few knew of the agreement made by the saints in a...

It must not be supposed that the Prophet Joseph was an uninterested spectator of the stirring events that were being enacted. The circumstances of The Church were such that his...

FIFTEEN days were consumed in taking testimony for the State. At the expiration of that time the judge ordered the defendants to bring forth their rebutting testimony or he woul...

The saints, exiled from their homes in Jackson County, found a temporary resting place in Clay County; though some of them were scattered through Ray, Lafayette, and Van Buren C...

No sooner had the saints departed from De Witt than the Presbyterian preacher, Woods, called the mob that had infested that settlement together, and in a speech of frenzied hate...

Before concluding this writing I wish to refer to a matter before briefly alluded to. On July 8, 1838, the Lord had given a revelation to the Twelve Apostles through Joseph, the...

The spirit of apostasy referred to in the last chapter was by no means confined to Missouri. It extended more or less throughout The Church, but more especially at Kirtland. Dur...

The Fourth of July, 1838, is a memorable day in the history of Far West. The saints had long been vexed by their enemies. They had seen their homes destroyed, their helpless wom...

It may not be inappropriate here to break the direct line of my narrative, for the purpose of noticing events that are but indirectly connected with the Missouri persecutions; a...

There were a few of the citizens of Jackson County who did not take part in these shameful proceedings against The Church. They were friendly disposed towards the saints, but la...

After crossing the Illinois River Zion's Camp passed many of those mysterious earth mounds so common in that section. Mysterious mounds! No, not mysterious to them, for they had...